I’d just like to excerpt an email I received from Sean Mullen DBN from Lubbock, TX (presumably under the able leadership of Stuart Cullen JKN). Thank you, Sean, and keep the comments coming!
“5 is dah suht (da seot according to the Revised Romanization, the current standard in Korea), and 6 is yuh suht (yeo seot). Now, I understand that as long as one can get one’s point across, the fine details of pronunciation don’t really matter, but I just wanted to let you know in case you were interested.
Also, there are two separate numeral systems in Korean, the Pure Korean and the Sino-Korean, which is derived from Chinese. While the Sino-Korean numbers are used to express minutes when telling time, dates and months of the year, amounts of money, and floors of a building, the Pure Korean numbers are used when expressing the hour, for expressing your age, and when counting objects, so we correctly use Pure Korean numbers while counting aloud during practice. However, the Sino-Korean numbers (il, i, sam, sa, etc.) do not literally translate as “first, second, third, fourth,” etc. as it says in the Kuk Sool textbook. Il and ha-nah both mean “one” — they’re just used differently. I think that “first” can be implied in an archaic sense in the strike il ji, for example. Joong Bong Il Hyung does mean “First” Middle Staff Form, so it’s also implied there. I could be wrong, though.”
Keep in mind that Korean grammar is different than American, and if it’s anything like Japanese, than there may be no grammatical difference between “one”, “first”, and other words with similar meanings.
Congratulations on your promotion Nicki Jyo Kyo Nim. Last time I looked on the blog you were Dahn Boh Nim. Welcome to the black belt family.
Psbn Jon
UK
Thank you, sir. I actually promoted during our Super Seminar visit in June, but it took Ken Schalk PSBN to tell me in Houston that I was still going by Dahn Bo Nim on this blog. Were you in Houston for the 50th? I would hate to think I missed my chance to meet a reader….
Ashton, you are exactly right. Despite the fact that 65-70% of all Korean words are derived from Chinese, Korean grammar is nothing like Chinese grammar — it is almost exactly like Japanese grammar (but it’s not difficult to imagine why). When using Sino-Korean numerals, the additional character that, when added, would make “one” become “first” is often omitted, but as far as I know, when counting in Pure Korean numerals, this is never omitted.
